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Don’t push kids to change gender identities

Originally published at SF Gate

Assembly member Tom Ammiano has introduced a bill that would require public schools to allow children to change their gender identities, and then have access to the bathrooms, locker rooms and sports teams of that gender.

I have nothing but sympathy for people who feel they are trapped in the wrong body. I cannot think of anything that would be harder for a person to do than tell the world that he is a she or she is a he.

Still, I do not like Ammiano’s bill because it overrides parental authority and basically encourages kids to change their gender identities before they have come of age. I wonder and do not know: Do children who think they are in the wrong gender ever change their minds?

Ammiano’s legislative aide told me she knows of no studies on the issue, but there’s no reason to study the issue. News stories tend to be pretty boosterish. Like this one. And this one. And this one. It’s as if no journalist dare ask whether gender changes for children are a good idea.